2002 F-250 Trans problems

I know other racers using this type of truck for towing must have run into similar problems with their transmission. I am on my third rebuild now and with only 6500 miles the trans is whining. It's the automatic transmission and 7.3 dsl. with an Edge Evolution programmer that stays in race/extreme mode for fuel milage purposes, no other mods.
I haven't abused it and only towed my car and trailer which weighes in at a wopping 3600 lbs. for both. I just took it back in to the tranny shop to have it checked, they pulled the pan changed the filter and said there were no signs of any thing wrong and no debris in the pan.
I am contemplating selling this truck that I otherwise love due to this problem. the truck has a total of 118k miles and at $1900-$2100 a pop I can't afford another rebuild.

The race/extreme mode is designed just for that; race/extreme. Will tear stuff up, especially trannys. You really shouldn't get out of tow mode.....ever. I know that being able to drive 80mph up a tree is cool, but you're paying the price at $1900-2100 a pop....
Are you sure the whine is the trans? Hard to believe you can hear a trans whine over the stroke racket.......

The race/extreme mode is designed just for that; race/extreme. Will tear stuff up, especially trannys. You really shouldn't get out of tow mode.....ever. I know that being able to drive 80mph up a tree is cool, but you're paying the price at $1900-2100 a pop....
Are you sure the whine is the trans? Hard to believe you can hear a trans whine over the stroke racket.......

Thanks for the reply John, I've been a mechanic for 30 yrs. and am in tune to "noises". With the driver door open , vehicle stopped and moving gear selecter from drive to reverse., the noise is present in drive, stops in neutral and is audible again as soon as it engages reverse again.

I'm taking it back to the shop again with these observations to see what can be done if anything. In the mean time I'll take it out of extreme mode and try "tow".

The race/extreme mode is designed just for that; race/extreme. Will tear stuff up, especially trannys. You really shouldn't get out of tow mode.....ever. I know that being able to drive 80mph up a tree is cool, but you're paying the price at $1900-2100 a pop....
Are you sure the whine is the trans? Hard to believe you can hear a trans whine over the stroke racket.......

Thanks for the reply John, I've been a mechanic for 30 yrs. and am in tune to "noises". With the driver door open , vehicle stopped and moving gear selecter from drive to reverse., the noise is present in drive, stops in neutral and is audible again as soon as it engages reverse again.

I'm taking it back to the shop again with these observations to see what can be done if anything. In the mean time I'll take it out of extreme mode and try "tow".

Ok, might be pump noise. Really bad pump noise. I'm sure the extreme mode maxes out line pressure in attempt to make the clutches hold, so may have overtaxed the pump. I'm pretty sure that it also disables lockup converter functions which will make more heat, especially towing.
With 30 yrs experience as a tech, I'm sure you're correct about where the noise is coming from. I certainly didn't intend to suggest that you didn't. Sometimes noises are hard to pinpoint. I have 26 yrs myself.......and have chased noises a time or two.
Johnny

I didn't take anything personal John, I appreciate any feed back I can get to help solve the problem. I'm not what I would call a tech, I have been doing general repairs on everything from weed eaters to WWII Russian subs, literally since I was old enough to carry tools out of my dads tool box, which he didn't appreciate then. Like I said your comments/suggestions are always welcome, thanks Mark

Ok, might be pump noise. Really bad pump noise. I'm sure the extreme mode maxes out line pressure in attempt to make the clutches hold, so may have overtaxed the pump. I'm pretty sure that it also disables lockup converter functions which will make more heat, especially towing.
With 30 yrs experience as a tech, I'm sure you're correct about where the noise is coming from. I certainly didn't intend to suggest that you didn't. Sometimes noises are hard to pinpoint. I have 26 yrs myself.......and have chased noises a time or two.
Johnny[/quote]

we had a truck in our shop that was equipped with an edge programmer setup. After looking into the setup he had, in race/extreme mode the edge programmer would eliminate the converter clutch operation. This caused the transmission to overheat. After telling the customer about this he quit using this setup but then added a computer program into the computer to "boost" the transmission performance even more than the shift kit we installed into the truck. So he basicly double stacked programs and it caused the transmission to kill itself from over pressure condition.

Jus a little experience story hope'n to help. Also may want to change coolers if havent before. Those ford coolers are one of the worse to get cleaned out. In fact, ford will not warranty any rebuilt transmission of theirs if you do not change the cooler.

Thanks for the feedback, in your opinion is the Edge programmer at all safe to use ? Say in tow mode ? And the cooler you are referring to , is it the cooler in the radiator or the stand alone tranny cooler or both ?
Thanks, Mark

Originally Posted by jed5161

we had a truck in our shop that was equipped with an edge programmer setup. After looking into the setup he had, in race/extreme mode the edge programmer would eliminate the converter clutch operation. This caused the transmission to overheat. After telling the customer about this he quit using this setup but then added a computer program into the computer to "boost" the transmission performance even more than the shift kit we installed into the truck. So he basicly double stacked programs and it caused the transmission to kill itself from over pressure condition.

Jus a little experience story hope'n to help. Also may want to change coolers if havent before. Those ford coolers are one of the worse to get cleaned out. In fact, ford will not warranty any rebuilt transmission of theirs if you do not change the cooler.